Dunstall Park Greyhound Track - The Stakeholders Update

Dunstall Park on target for August trials

Those of us who enjoy horse racing as well as the dogs will have been watching Wolverhampton fixtures for a while, wondering when we were going to see progress on the planned greyhound track in the middle of the course. The team at the track have been hard at work on the kennel block and just two weeks ago broke ground on the infield to start shaping the newest track in the country.

Jason Begg, who is the track engineer said that 22,000 tonnes of soil was moved last week to level the ground and began making the shape of the track to start the build. They have been on site since January with the kennels started first and the work on the track beginning a fortnight ago. 

At present due to the good weather the team are two weeks ahead of schedule, which will give them some wiggle room down the line. Trials are expected to begin in August with racing starting the following month. There will be a short crossover period for the Perry Barr team led by General Manager Chris Black before that venue closes its doors in October.

Mark Spincer, the MD of Arc Racing said that Arc are "committed to the sport, we are in the dogs for the long term." He mentioned that there is the possibility of another Arc track picking up Perry Barr fixtures for a couple of weeks to make the move across as seamless as possible and to try to keep as much pressure off trainers and kennel staff as they can.

The Dunstall Park track itself

This is where there are going to be some murmers of discontent from the greyhound racing fraternity. The track is being built with short straights of 75m each with long sweeping bends. As Dr Christian Spring, the Principal Scientist at the Sports Turf Research Institute told the crowd, "the track has to meet the requirements of the design brief which is to keep the dogs as safe as possible.

"There will be slightly wider bends than at Perry Barr as the evidence shows that wider radius bends have a lower risk of injury." While the track layout might not be to the liking of some long term fans of greyhound racing, the longevity of the societal license to continue the sport is built on continuous improvements in welfare and Dunstall Park is being built with this in mind. 

Spring described the track as a "love child of Monmore and Hove with Perry Barr's DNA thrown in. We asked ourselves, how do we take the best things from tracks around the country, put it together to be the safest track and best running surface." It will be interesting to see how that comes to fruition as a 'Frankenstein's monster' of a track. Just as long as it doesn't want to start tap dancing to 'Putting On The Ritz.'

Perhaps a kinder comparison is that it will be more of a Joseph and his Technicolor Dreamcoat of a track, "it is Hove and Monmore and Perry Barr and Sheffield and Towcester and ...you get the idea! The grandstand for the horse racing certainly will make the track handsome and smart. 

The water management at the track will be crucial so they have created a water recycling facility, as well as rainwater capturing for reuse. It is all about sustainability and social responsibility. The track is made to act and behave as one so that the surface drains as consistently as possible. The sand will be the same that was used at the recent running surface update at Central Park with the same camber as Perry Barr, which is one degree on the straights and four degrees on the bends. 

The distances of races will be 270m, 480m, 660m, 715m and 925m with a shorter sprint trip of 215m also a possibility. There will be four meetings a week on Monday morning, Wednesday evening, Thursday afternoon and Friday evening. The last of those will be the major meeting of the week. Black said that "there is no plan to bring hurdles racing to Dunstall Park" when asked.

Plans for 2026 are fluid until Wolverhampton has been allocated its horse racing fixtures by the BHA but the hope of Spincer is to take on Monmore on Saturday nights next year. A bold plan for the area with just a few miles separating the two venues. 

The Dunstall Park Kennels

There are 116 kennels in the new block with vets rooms and a surgery room which will be state of the art. There are six washing stations outside the kennels so each dog coming off the track has their own place to be washed down and a further three inside. The entrance to the area will have ANPR on the gate with trainers registering their vehicles in advance.

The long terms plans for Dunstall Park

All of the major races from Perry Barr are being moved across to start the track on the right foot. The St Leger and Birmingham Cup will be held at Nottingham this year as they are too close to the opening date but will move to Dunstall Park in 2026. It will be The Oaks that kicks off the Category One competitions at Dunstall Park on October 24.

The track is beholden to the horse racing fixtures so the potential for Saturday nights in 2026 mentioned above will have to be at the cost of the horse racing track losing their own fairly regular slot at the weekend. One thing that Spincer is adamant about though is that "we need to have the best races at the best track and that is at Dunstall Park."

He kept his cards a little closer to his chest when asked the natural next question about whether the track would tender for the Derby once Towcester's contract comes to an end in 2026. "We built the track to host whatever is available and when those fixtures become available, we'll be ready to host them."

The track is being built as close to the stands as possible with the service road that runs around the inside of the horse racing circuit having to be left where it is. Dunstall Park is certainly large enough with impressive facilities to hold the big events and the marketing will be ramped up in the autumn to try and get as many through the door for the Oaks as possible. 

There is an air of optimism around Dunstall Park, a track that is well enough positioned to be supported from all across the country. Let's hope that it gets what it requires to be the success that the sport needs.